European Curling Championships - Scots stun unbeaten Swedes to lift European title
Last updated 12/20/2011 10:08:35 AM
European Curling Championships - Scots stun unbeaten Swedes to lift European title
Scotland's women bounced back from their defeat by Sweden in last year's European Curling Championships by thrashing the favourites to win the title in Moscow.
It was sweet revenge indeed as the Scots thrashed their great rivals by the stunning margin of 8-2 to claim the title against a team who had won all ten of their matches leading up to the final.
It was their first European title for 36 years!
After last year's narrow victory over the Scots, this time they simply could not match the challenge by Eve Muirhead's rink.
Scotland skip Muirhead was delighted to take gold and said afterwards:"I wanted to go one better this year.
"We knew it was going to be a tough game. Sweden went into the match unbeaten whereas we had started quite slowly.
"But as the week has gone on we have got better and better."
Scotland started the better of the two, setting the pattern for the final as they scored singles in each of the first two ends for an early 2-0 lead.
But by the end of the fifth, Scotland had roared to an unexpected 7-0 lead, with Sweden finally getting on the scoreboard for the first time in the sixth.
Muirhead's team promptly added another score in the seventh and forced Sweden to reluctantly conceded defeat in the eighth.
"In the final we hardly missed anything. We fired on the pressure from the word go," Muirhead added.
"We seemed to be much more relaxed than them. The tension seemed to be on them from the start. The skip missed a couple of shots and we just fired the pressure on them and managed to get the victory.
"It's fantastic. It's been one of the medals I've wanted."
The victory for Muirhead's team of Anna Sloan, Vicki Adams, Claire Hamilton and Kay Adams secures Scotland's first European gold since 1975.
Russia beat Denmark 13-7 to take the bronze medal.